Arsonist's Lullaby - Hozier
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What is that god awful smell?
I swallowed my dry heave as an array of scents assaulted my nostrils. Scents that consisted of spices, sweat, overpowering perfumes, and the ass of a cow. Truthfully, that was probably about a quarter of the scents. The market place of Cairo was a questionable place, really. It took me a while before I started getting used to my surroundings, used to the way the people worked, how to respect their culture and how not to offend them in certain spaces. I loved every minute of this place. Well, apart from situations like these.
In my twenty-eight years of life, I hadn't thought I would be spending most of my days digging in Cairo studying the earth, its ruins and the organisms. My dreams had truly come true.
However, I definitely did not expect to be standing a breaths width away from a stinky-ass cow mooing its cowbell off.
I scowled inwardly and moved as far back as I could into the hustling crowd of locals and tourists, keeping my eyes firmly on the man buying a tapestry wall hanger from one of the venders. He was a good-looking guy. He looked homely, probably had a nice girlfriend back at the hotel, probably who he was buying the tapestry for. Good for him. Brunette, tanned skin. Hm. My type... Appearance wise that is.
Now, don't get me wrong. Someone like him - taken - wasn't my type though. I wasn't a home wrecker. But with this one, I felt like I didn't have a choice. I was attracted almost as soon as I saw him. Or smelt him more like.
God dammit Evie would kill me. And so would Amy probably. I haven't seen my best and oldest friend's in over a year, not since our annual vacation. Every year since we all graduated college, and became vampires, we agreed to go on holiday with their other halves and their kids - half-vampire half-humans. It was a nice way to keep in touch if any of us, namely me, decided to fly off the radar for a long period of time. They had lives and families of their own and me? I had work to do. I loved what I did, loved it.
Being a geologist is what I live for, it's what I'd aspired to be even at fifteen years old. I took my master's degree after I graduated and now I have a job people would kill for. My friends are doing what they love and so am I. And unfortunately my job required me to move around the world for usually long periods of time.
I ground the back of my molars as my mind contemplated how I could approach him. Slowly? Calmly? As I pondered on what to do, another few choice words entered my mind. Desperate. Stupid. I'd gone this long without feeding and this is what I'd resulted to. Prowling the streets at.... Oh god, 1:43pm? I am a terrible person. Terrible, terrible person.
No, I am strong. Confident. And I don't care what anyone thinks of me for doing this... Which is a little bit of a lie but I squared my shoulders and stuck to it. Chelsea McDonald doesn't take orders from anyone. Not a single soul.
I swiped my palms down my loose linen trousers - as the dress code around the market place can become confrontational to most men if I were in short shorts, something I discovered two years ago - and my blouse. Like a snake, I was weaving in and out through the crowd, my eyes firmly on the guy buying the long pointless blanket that was probably going to end up in a wardrobe under a pile of shoe boxes.
But as I grew closer and the tiniest of breezes blew his scent my way, nothing mattered other than feeding. Not a thing. My sunglasses covered the widening of my pupils, as it should. I lost the idea of trying to get him calmly or slowly. All logical sense of thinking left me completely. And as I made it beside him, he turned to me, offered me a small polite but hesitant smile clearly observing my forwardness. Then I pulled my sunglasses off and met his eye in only a way a vampire could. With the ability to coerce.
"You should buy that and follow me. Yes?"
"Okay." He murmured like a lost puppy.
Like the gentle woman I am, I offered my arm to him and led him - as my good friend Nate would say - astray. Because that's what I do apparently. I lead people astray. I was the energetic, flighty, impulsive soul that did whatever I pleased. Quote, unquote a certain someone I dare not speak of said to me once upon a time. I shook the thought of him away and continued through the crowd.
I rarely affiliated myself with humans when I fed. I wasn't a complete monster, I just... Preferred to feed from humans whilst Evie and Amy preferred the blood of animals. Animals sometimes were my main source but what else am I supposed to feed on here? Camels?
No way Josè. They tasted vile.
My eyes scanned the crowd as it did every day and every night. Sometimes, but not all the time, I felt like someone or something was watching me. Call me paranoid, but I had to watch my back nowadays. I didn't know what predator I was going to encounter now that I'd entered this supernatural world. A few years ago, I met a werepanther. A freakin' werepanther. He caught up with me in Moscow near Chernobyl. They say that place is inhabitable because of the nuclear disaster? Absolute crap. Werepanther's cover every inch of it. Good for them for finding a home I say. He's a nice, shy guy too. Joe. We talk from time to time and he visited me last year but we both have important things to be getting on with.
Like feeding.
"Where are we going?" The man attached to my arm asked me in a dream like state.
"Around the corner. Quick question, do you have a girlfriend?" I met his eye.
He shook his head as we neared the narrow, shadowed alley way and replied, "No."
"Wife?"
"No."
"Boyfriend?"
"Nope."
I raised a brow. "Then who are you buying that tapestry for?"
"My mother. She's getting a cucumber facial scrub at the hotel. We do this every year."
I pursed my lips to hide my smile and swiped the sweat from my head with relief. "Oh. Well... That's just great. Okay, I want you to be as quiet as possible please and thank you."
With a calming breath, I exposed my fangs, felt the throbbing of my empty veins along my neck and cheeks and allowed my gaze to darken as I sunk my teeth into the side of his neck. I felt his skin break beneath my fangs, his blood poured carefully into my mouth.
Oh, sweet, sweet nectar.
Two and a half weeks and I was on my last dregs. I'd been in the middle of the desert for most of that time.
One crabapple, two crabapples...
It was dangerous of me as it, well, resulted to me suckling on an innocent human in public but it came with the job... Sort of.
Four crabapples... Four and half crabapples...
And release.
I inhaled the smoggy hot air, completely satisfied, quenched of my unfortunate thirst and looked the pale man in his eyes before biting the tips of my finger tips to heal his neck. And as I did so, I made him look me in the eye once more: "You had a wonderful day out finding that beautifully useless tapestry, you won't remember me at all or what happened in this alleyway. Okay? Take a hot bath when you get back too, and maybe, well, find yourself a nice girl. Go on vacation with her instead of your mother next time. Have a good day."
With a pat on his shoulder and a tissue to wipe his neck, I sent him on his way.
That'll do for at least a week. With a heavy sigh, I adjusted my bag over my shoulders and licked my lips. What a brilliant start to the afternoon. I had a lot to do today, I was set to drive off with my team to Jordan in two weeks for a two month expedition on the classification of layers within the last ten years.
Smoothing my blonde hair back into its ponytail I made a move to blend right back into the hustle of the afternoon crowd. Scanning my eyes over the unsuspecting faces, I almost always felt a sense of jealousy toward the fact they hadn't one clue what happened within the dark, lonely alleyways. They didn't know what lurked deep within the corners come nightfall.
There were pros and cons to being a vampire. And usually, the pros outweighed the cons easy. But there's always that one con that made me wish I could be human for just one more day.
**
Greeting my landlord and a few of my neighbours in Arabic, I climbed the first two flight of stairs with a newfound spring to my step. I felt rejuvenated, I felt one hundred times better. I swung around the corner with a light smile and unlocked my door.
And almost immediately, the smile wiped from my face at the mess in the living room. There were a few dirty plates, breakfast and lunch, numerous glasses and books scattered all over the coffee table. "You said you'd clean up this morning." I shouted through to the other room.
Katherine Philips, another of my closest friends, peaked her dark head of hair around the corner, her hands holding onto two already filled bags of laundry. "If I'd have known you were such a neat freak, I wouldn't have travelled out here."
"You're the one that wanted a vacation while Micah's away get off my back." I laughed. "The least you could do is clean up after yourself-"
"Which I'm doing right now! Calm down, Chels. Are you cranky because you have to feed tonight?"
I grimaced a little. "About that-"
"I knew you couldn't resist that guy." She interrupted moving through to our small kitchen, I followed. "What was the appeal? The scent? The skin? The fact he was thirty-six and on vacation with his mother?"
Any other person would be shocked or mortified by the fact she knew so much about a man I knew next to nothing about. But being a witch has its perks. Her and her partner, Micah are both witches working with vampires like me and my friends. It's not often you find witches willing to work with vampires. But it's been a long time since they needed to help us. Both of them, as well as her brother, were very powerful but they had no need to use their gifts.
Except clearly to spy on me.
I leaned guiltily against the counter and tried to seem nonchalant by shrugging. "It was the mother thing, I can't get enough of a mama's boy. It slays me."
"Thought so." I could see her mouth pursing to stop the smile. "Are we going out tonight? I've been here for a month and you still haven't taken me out properly."
"Now that's a straight out lie, we went to that outdoor bar two weeks ago."
Kate raised a brow, picking up the trash bag from the trash can. "That was a mobile cart and it was five pm. We got home at eight. You may be stuck at the age of twenty-one but you sure are acting your real age. What happened to that party animal?"
"She's still here trust me. I'm not even thirty yet leave me alone." I smirked. "Let's go out I'll take you to a real club. Joe came here last year and showed me this great cocktail bar downtown."
"Joe as in that werepanther from Ukraine? Still mixing with a crowd like that?"
I followed her back out into the living room. "He's a nice guy and he's my friend. I don't get why everyone is so against our friendship."
"Because werepanther's are sly." She said. "You're a vampire. The likes of you two aren't supposed to be friends."
"And yet me and you, a witch and a vampire, are. It's been two years, I'm sure he would have made a move to hurt me by now. Enough about it anyway, we're friends, good friends in fact. Now put that stuff downstairs and let's get ready. You've got me all excited to go out. I thrive off seeing men in their natural habitat they're like lions in a watering hole."
"And I thrive off of the free drinks you compel out of people. A little help?" Grabbing one of the bags, we made our way to the laundry room in the basement. "Oh, and did you want me to switch over your pendent to a ring still? Or what about a nice anklet?"
The other few good things about being a vampire? The strength, the speed, the ability to persuade someone to do anything I wanted them to do. A downfall? Having to wear a piece of jewellery all day everyday just so I could walk around during the day.
"I'm okay with the necklace for now. Maybe before we go to Jordan. You'll like Jordan and, even better, you can come to work with me."
"Oh joy! I get to watch you dig rocks."
I rolled my eyes with light laugh. "You don't have anything better to do other than watch me in your head, may as well do one better by watching me in person. Hey, I'll even give you my fossil brush! Want me to give you a gold star every time you find a neat rock-?"
"Ha, ha, ha absolute joker aren't you." She nudged my arm stalking away. "Don't make me mess the place up again because I will..."
"I'm kidding, Kate!" I laughed following her back upstairs. "
**
Club life in Cairo really isn't that significantly different to club life in any other country. Mainstream music, overpriced drinks, horny boys with their beer goggles on. I used to love bars and clubs, used to live on the atmosphere. But now? Maybe Kate was right. Maybe I was finally acting my real-age. Thankfully, Kate and I had snagged a table at the beginning of the night and had only bothered to vacate to dance.
Dancing beside Kate, I felt carefree. I rarely got away from work and whenever I did, it was to feed hence why I left it for so long. The lights flashed behind my eyelids, the amount of bodies around me made the air conditioning futile. It was the kind of vibe where you could be by yourself, sweat so much your hair would stick to your forehead or even a stranger's forearm and nobody would look at you twice. The music bounced off my sensitive eardrums but it didn't hurt. It was nice. The freedom was worthwhile.
I opened my eyes and smiled at Kate dancing her life away too. But then my eyes drifted to the body by the bar. In the middle of the dancefloor I paused, froze more like. I could feel myself leaning my head forward and squinting my gaze at the back of the stranger's head.
His build, his dark hair it was familiar. Too familiar, in fact. My eyes scanned over his arms, the back of his jeans and across his broad shoulders. He even turned his head to the side but at that moment, the lights went from flashing to strobe and even with my perfect vision I couldn't see any features.
It couldn't be him. His sister recently told me he was in Iceland. Why? I honestly couldn't care any less. As long as he was far away from me I didn't concern myself with his business and that's how it should be vice versa. But it wasn't. It never has been.
Without a thought I made a move to the bar. But Katherine's hand grabbed my arm and stopped me.
"Where are you going?" She said in my ear.
"To the bar." I replied turning back to her. "Don't you think that guy-"
But he was gone. I looked at each and every head, I looked further down the bar but there wasn't a single trace of him. It must not have been him. He isn't the only man with brunette hair, Chelsea. Your mind's playing tricks, a part of me murmured. You're always looking for him. It's true. And if I wasn't, then that was when he turned up. So I was always on alert. Never caught off guard.
"What guy?"
Glancing around once more, I shook away the feeling and smiled. "Nobody."
Since a few weeks ago, the sensation of being watched felt as if I really was just being a paranoid, over-thinking vampire with a chip on her shoulder. But even now, as Katherine and I exited the club a few hours later, the paranoia remained.
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Welcome to Chelsea and Christian's world!
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